Rafael De La ParraExcecutive Director Ch’ooj Ajauil AC

Professional Biography

Rafael is a Mexican marine biologist and former research coordinator of the Domino Project.

He has been studying and managing whale shark activities since 2004 and is the Mexican Caribbean Marine Mammal Stranding Network general coordinator.

He has also been tour operator since 1988: Which includes (tag and release of billfish), he a scuba diver instructor, trainer and workshop coordinator on coral reefs, mangrove, manatee, crocodile and coastal lagoon topics.

Attended and participated on Symposia, Conferences, Congresses in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Panama, United States, Cuba and Mexico. Published works on coral reefs, coastal lagoon, marine mammals and whale sharks.

Rafael has been instrumental in Whale Shark research in Mexico, he has spent the last few years tagging and working with Whale Sharks at what is believed to be the largest aggregation of Whale Sharks in the world, Holbox, Mexico.

Some of Rafael’s findings with the partners he works with have been ‘ground breaking’ and have changed the way researchers look at Whale Sharks and has had many articles and papers published on whale sharks.

He was also instrumental in tracking a Whale Shark from Mexico to the Ascension Islands in the southern hemisphere, the first time this has been done, apart from this he has a huge amount of experience with using many different types of tracking devices on Whale Sharks, Visual ID tags, Acoustic Tags and Satellite Tags